This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Feds aim to boost reputation of Alberta oilsands

Environment Minister Peter Kent hopes a comprehensive plan for monitoring the impact of the Alberta oilsands will boost the damaged reputation of the industry abroad.

A pickup truck passes a mining shovel filling a haul truck at an oilsands mine near Fort McMurray, Alta., in early July. (Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

By Joanna SmithOttawa Bureau

Thu., July 21, 2011

OTTAWA—Environment Minister Peter Kent hopes a comprehensive new plan for monitoring the impact of the Alberta oilsands will boost the damaged reputation of the industry abroad.

“It will provide the facts and the science to defend the product which some abroad are threatening to boycott,” Kent said in Ottawa on Thursday. “There is already a great deal of disinformation and misinformation both within Canada and abroad and we’re seeing it being used in a variety of ways — sometimes for a variety of purposes — to discriminate against the product of a great Canadian natural resource.”

The U.S. government has been under pressure from environmentalists as it considers allowing the $7 billion extension of a pipeline that would connect the Alberta oilsands to the Gulf Coast.

Kent said he hoped the monitoring program would help alleviate concerns in Washington and speed up the approvals process.

“I think that there is a fair amount of informational catch-up to be done, both in the United States and its various governmental agencies,” Kent said.

Article Continued Below

The new program would monitor the quality of water and air downstream and downwind from development sites as well as measure the impact on biodiversity through disturbance to wildlife habitats.

The oilsands currently produce more than 1.5 billion barrels every day and production is expected to double by the end of the decade and generate an average of $86 billion per year from 2013 to 2020.

Given those revenues, Kent said he expects the industry to fully cover the estimated $50 million per year the monitoring system will cost.

“It is a very small price to pay for social license,” said Kent.

That was news to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, whose president David Collyer said Thursday that while the industry expects to chip in a significant amount, “there needs to be a discussion about the appropriate allocation of those costs among the various parties who have an interest in monitoring.”

Mike Hudema of Greenpeace said he welcomed increased scientific scrutiny of the environmental impact of the oilsands, but said it means little if the federal government does not act on its findings.

“A monitoring program only really tells you the extent of the damage that the tarsands are causing,” Hudema said, adding that Kent is mistaken if he thinks the plan will improve its image. “The current impacts of the tarsands are completely beyond what should be socially acceptable.”

NDP environment critic Megan Leslie said monitoring needs to be backed by regulation.

“I don’t think there’s going to be adequate follow-up with regulation because the federal government hasn’t stepped up to enforce the existing laws to manage the environmental impacts of the oilsands,” said Leslie.

The monitoring plan grew out of the federally appointed Oilsands Advisory Panel, which released a report last December concluding a lack of scientific data meant Ottawa had failed to adequately measure the environmental image of the quickly developing industry.

The Alberta government announced its own monitoring system earlier this month, but Environment Canada says the two plans do not overlap, as scientists from each level of government will manage the areas best suited to their expertise and jurisdictions.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com